Me think you doth lie about the 2" of topsoil!!!!
Well done though - immaculate._________________“It’s my field. It’s my child. I nursed it. I nourished it. I saw to its every want. I dug the rocks out of it with my bare hands and I made a living thing of it!”

With or Without your approval I'll be looking to visit that Garden of Eden when I'm next up in your area...I love the dense look it has and the Healthy look of all it's Inhabitants...they look quite content...nice one...

There you go now, you two can compare notes after all, bring a clipboard!_________________“It’s my field. It’s my child. I nursed it. I nourished it. I saw to its every want. I dug the rocks out of it with my bare hands and I made a living thing of it!”

I am sure one of the main reasons these have come to live in my garden is that I rarely use weed killers and then very sparely as a spot treatment for troublesome weeds. I love these orchids and am happy to give them a home - they grow profusely on banks and ditches near where I grew up in Fermanagh. Now they grow in several locations in my garden.
The only place I know of, locally, where they grow is on a roadside verge about half a Km away. That is a very vulnerable location and could be destroyed in minutes by road works. So I'm happy to give them a home and hope that by doing so, I'll extend and protect the local natural seed bank.

As far as I know, the orchids will only germinate where there is a specific mycorrhyzal fungus present in the soil. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Either way, let them go to seed, and spread them close to the original plant, then cross your fingers!

You are right about the fungus. I forget the exact mechanism, because I was told about it many years ago, but it has something to do with the tiny scale of the seed/spores and their inability to provide much sustenance to the potential new plant.
They have spread from one side of the house to the other without any conscious input from me, so far. I'll leave these alone, to do their own thing.

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